Irish Corruption

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Christine Newman is so far the only voice in the Irish media to recognise the significance of John White’s allegations at the Morris Tribunal this week. In a summing up of the week’s events in Saturday’s Irish Times, she notes:

The word “widespread” in connection with Garda corruption is likely to bring uneasiness and more questions about what has been going on in the gardaí, not just in Donegal, but throughout the State.

The allegation that illegal bugging of Garda stations, of suspects and their solicitors, houses, apartments, cars and telephones by gardaí was going on nationwide was made by Det Sgt John White this week.

His evidence brought a whole new dimension to the tribunal and has led to the setting up of a new mini-module on bugging to be heard at a future date.

For the first time, mention was made of two Cork gardaí who, Det Sgt White claimed, would back him up in his allegation. They were willing to come to the tribunal, he said, and testify that bugging was used in a Co Cork Garda station in 1992 during a murder investigation.

The tribunal had initially received a statement from one of the gardaí but informed him that it was outside its remit.

However, when Det Sgt White made the claim that the two gardaí would testify, tribunal lawyer Paul McDermott said it was a matter of some significance. He said the generalised bugging issue was a much wider allegation. A matter which might have been deemed to be outside the tribunal’s remit was now relevant to Det Sgt White’s presentation of his case.

Det Sgt White’s claims began with an allegation that Letterkenny Garda station was bugged in 1996 and that interviews between solicitors and their clients were illegally taped by gardaí. This was during the time that 12 people were arrested in connection with the death of cattle-dealer Richie Barron and he claimed an interview between Roisín McConnell and her solicitor was bugged.

However, Det Sgt White further alleged that bugging in Garda stations was widespread and this was known by senior officers. It was a well-kept secret in the force. Asked if the Letterkenny bugging was an isolated incident, he replied: “No, not by any means. It wasn’t just Garda stations, it was houses, cars and apartments and phones, and it was done totally illegally and the senior Garda authorities know.”

About 200 men and women nationwide knew exactly what went on with bugging in Garda stations, he claimed.

White’s allegations are hotly contested by senior officers such as Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty, Chief Supt Austin McNally and Assistant Commissioner Dermot Jennings, and are in conflict with their evidence.

Moreover, it remains to be seen just how far the tribunal can explore the wider implications of the allegations.

But the fact is that the potential fallout from claims of widespread bugging is unlikely to go away.

There’s an elephant in the room here and no one can see it. Why is Newman the only hack to recognise it? I didn’t find any coverage of the allegations in any of Sunday’s paper. If someone did please leave a comment.

Another judge rules against an Garda Siochana. Mark Horan was awarded €18,000 by Judge Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court. Yet again another civil rather than criminal case.

Mr Horan, with addresses in Seapark, Dungarvan, Co Waterford, and Churchtown Road Upper, Dundrum, Co Dublin, had denied having told gardaí to “f*** off” and having asked them: “Have you f****** nothing better to do.” He told his counsel, Pádraig Dwyer, that he and friends had left The Turk’s Head pub in Temple Bar, on July 4th, 2003, at about 3am. An unmarked garda car had started driving very slowly through the crowd and a garda shouted to get off the road. He may have responded in a cheeky way and said: “Have you nothing better to be doing tonight . . .” He denied having used abusive language.

Mr Horan told Mr Dwyer he had run off and had put his fingers up at chasing gardaí. He said he had been pinned against a doorway by one or two gardaí who had punched him in the neck, back of the head and around his ears. As they had taken him to Pearse Street Garda station he was told: “You’ll never put your fingers up at a guard again.” In the station he was kicked and beaten by gardaí and held in a cell for an hour.

Mark Horan was assaulted by Gardai in a cell, he went to the Civil Courts and won. Even if what the Gardai said was true, it did not warrant the sort of action they took.

John White has been making more allegations about the bugging of Garda stations throughout the country.

Det Sgt White said two gardaí witnessed the bugging of an interview room. They were beside the man and the machine and they could name the man who was using it, he said. The two gardaí made statements to this effect.

“They told me that they were quite willing to give evidence about all this. It was in a murder case in Cork in 1992 and they can definitely give sworn evidence that the interview room was bugged and they saw it happening and they heard it happening.”

Mr Whelan asked if they were prepared to come to the tribunal.

“They are and they have made statements to their own superintendent about it and there was supposed to be an investigation but they believe there was a cover-up and they have told me that,” he said. They had all the reports and documentation necessary to show that, he said.

Tribunal lawyer Paul McDermott SC said they had received a statement from one of the gardaí and the matter would be pursued.

Michael Durack SC for the Garda Commissioner and senior officers said that Chief Supt Austin McNally, Asst Commissioner Kevin Carty and Asst Commissioner Dermot Jennings hotly contested this claim of bugging in Garda stations.

How long will we have to wait to hear more about these claims?

This is probably the most under reported story in recent times. It appears to have gone completely under the radar. The repurcussions of this, if true, are absolutely staggering.

Det Sgt White said bugging in Garda stations was a well-kept secret. He had told two senior officers, Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty and Chief Supt Austin McNally, of the internal Garda investigation team, about it in 1999 but they both told him they were not going to investigate it.

He had made an allegation that an interview between Róisín McConnell and her solicitor was bugged at Letterkenny Garda station in 1996 when she was arrested in connection with the investigation into the death of Richie Barron. However, yesterday he said bugging was widespread.

The chairman, Mr Justice Frederick Morris, asked if the Letterkenny bugging was not an isolated incident and he replied: “No, not by any means.”

Read that again. A former Senior Detective from Donegal has said that it is a widespread practice in Ireland for the Gardai to bug rooms where suspects are speaking to their solicitors. Not alone that, but when told of this the Carty team (headed by the then Assistant Commissioner) ignored it entirely. One has to ask the question, why? Why would the Assistant Commisioner ignore such a huge allegation? Did he believe it to be spurious? Did he know of the practice but choose to ignore it?

How many laws would this be breaking? How many constitutional rights to this infringe on? How many trials and investigations have been tainted by this practice? Why has no one investigated this allegation?

This warrants at least a look by an independent authority. Oh yes, we don’t have one.

This is quite signifcant, and links Bertie Ahern into some rather dubious shenanigans.

Tribunal judges have warned a land agent about his evidence after he failed to mention a controversial land deal from which he received a £600,000 payment.

Tim Collins denied deliberately misleading the inquiry over his involvement in the acquisition by Deepriver Ltd of the Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge, Co Meath.

Mr Collins is a close associate of the Taoiseach’s and a trustee of Bertie Ahern’s constituency office. He told the tribunal yesterday he was not a political person and was not a member of any political party.

Tribunal judges said they found it astonishing and extraordinary that Mr Collins had failed to mention the Deepriver deal until the inquiry’s lawyers drew attention to his 12.5 per cent share in the company.

Deepriver bought the land for £2.7 million in 1997 and sold it to the State for £7.4 million two years later after the Government decided to acquire the historic site. Mr Collins denied having a similar arrangement - under which he would be given a share of the profit - in relation to the property currently under investigation by the tribunal at Lissenhall, north Dublin.

It was a tidy profit, especially if you knew the government was going to buy the land.

This has nothing to do with Irish corruption nor is it a political or moral comment.

It was reported in the news this morning that a suspected former member of the IRA has been sentenced to six years in prison in Germany for his involvement in a bomb plot.

Prosecutors had told the court that Hardy had

“intended to kill as many British soldiers as possible.”

I think it’s ironic that there are still many Germans alive today who spent a good part of their adult life doing just that.

Humans are indeed strange creatures.

I know this area well. The roads around Dunkettle are already heavily congested, putting in another 600 houses with the current road system would make traffic levels chronic. But O’Flynn wants to carry on regardless, we will have to wait and see on this one.

He said that given that the roads issue raised by An Bord Pleanála related specifically to the immediate area, Mr O’Flynn’s request for a meeting “will be arranged in the context of normal pre-planning discussions”.

The proposal by O’Flynn Construction also included plans to build an equestrian centre and a retail outlet adjoining the protected Dunkathel House and a garden centre, but these were deemed unacceptable and inappropriate by An Bord Pleanála.

Among the third parties to the appeal was Glounthaune Community Association.

It has welcomed the decision, particularly the planning board’s concerns that the project would have provided insufficient facilities while affecting the area’s amenities.

“This is a watershed decision for all communities in Cork in their stand against unsustainable suburbanisation,” said an association spokeswoman.

“We are not anti-development,” she added, “but we’re encouraged by this decision in continuing our efforts to consult and work with developers and the planning authority and are happy to participate in any future consultation process.”

A vivid reminder of the Trim castle controversy. It strikes me as odd that the council approved the plan in the first place.

The plan also included the demolition of the mill and the construction of 15 “aparthotel” suites, restaurants, a bar and lounge, and 44 apartments in a separate four-storey block.

The council’s approval was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by An Taisce and local residents.

The board said that the site, on an inside bend of the River Suir, was of unique sensitivity and national importance because of its proximity to Cahir Castle and its position in an architectural conservation area.

It ruled that the proposed development would adversely affect the settings of the castle and the character of the conservation area because of the excessive height, scale and bulk of the hotel.

It would “fail to achieve an appropriate scale in relation to the castle”, the board said.

It is drilled into us that the vast, vast majority of Gardai are good policemen. But what protections do we have against the bad ones? This is a clear case of a Garda acting unlawfully, but it appears no criminal action was taken against him. There is no mention of a reprimand or sanction on the Garda either. What is curious is that after being challenged for parking illegally, he forced the hostel manager to wash the sticker off, and called in backup. What on earth is going on?

Given that he was found guilty twice by the Garda complaints Board of abusing his position, why is he allowed to continue work as a Garda?

A hostel manager in Cork has been awarded €20,000 in damages after a judge ruled that she had been falsely imprisoned and unlawfully arrested by an off-duty garda after she placed a private-parking sticker on the garda’s car.

Angela Freyne (60) took a civil court action against Garda Norbert Eames concerning an incident which occurred five years ago.

Ms Freyne, manager of a hostel on Kyril’s Quay in Cork, told Cork Circuit Civil Court that on April 13th, 2001, she noticed a car she did not recognise being parked in one of the spaces outside the premises.

She said that when she walked out to place a private-parking sticker on the car, she was confronted by Garda Eames who identified himself as an off-duty garda.

Ms Freyne claimed he arrested her for malicious damage to his car because she had placed a sticker on the rear windscreen. She became frightened when Garda Eames called the local Garda station requesting additional officers come to the scene.

Ms Freyne said she was later made to wash the sticker off the car despite her emphasising that she was the manager of the hostel and it was the owners’ policy to place stickers on cars left in the area without permission.

Garda Eames insisted that he only left his car in the private parking space that day because he was monitoring the suspicious behaviour of a criminal he recognised. He denied trying to intimidate the plaintiff.

He said he repeatedly tried to reason with Ms Freyne but she kept saying: “You are intimidating me.”

Pierce Sreenan BL, for Ms Freyne, said the arrest of his client was legally unsound and based on a trivial incident.

Judge Patrick J Moran said that Garda Eames’s actions were a clear abuse of his powers. He found that the garda’s actions were within the scope of his employment making the State liable for damages in the action.

However, he ruled that Garda Eames should pay his own legal costs because his personal actions led to the case.

Garda Eames was previously found guilty on two counts of abusing his position by the Garda Síochána Complaints Tribunal.

Anne Devitt has denied any wrongdoing in relation to receiving €20,000. The Irish Times reports:

Anne Devitt described as outrageous a suggestion that she could be bought and said there was nothing improper in her involvement in the issue.

Ms Devitt was chairwoman of the Northern Area Health Board between 2000 and 2002, at the time she was negotiating access across the health board’s land in Swords on behalf of landowner Joe Moran and his company Rayband Ltd.

In 1993, she signed the motion to rezone Rayband’s property for industry, but this could not be developed because it was landlocked.

The tribunal is investigating allegations by lobbyist Frank Dunlop that he bribed councillors Tom Hand, Cyril Gallagher and Tony Fox to secure the rezoning. Mr Hand and Mr Gallagher are deceased and Mr Fox denies the allegation.

Details of the payment to Ms Devitt in 2002 emerged during Mr Moran’s evidence earlier this week.

Yesterday, Ms Devitt told the tribunal there was no conflict of interest in her work for Mr Moran because health board officials knew at all times that she was acting as a consultant.

The matter had never come up for discussion on the board of the Eastern Regional Health Authority, but if it had she would have withdrawn. “The fact that I’m a member of the health board should not prevent me from acting in my profession,” she told Judge Gerald Keys.

Under the agreement mediated by Ms Devitt, Rayband agreed to build ambulance and patient facilities in return for access across the board’s land. Her role was to “keep the matter moving” and move it up the health board’s list of priorities. She had no role in the planning permission subsequently lodged by Rayband’s architect.

“I would have said to the health board ‘here is an opportunity for us to get badly needed facilities now’ . . . It was a win-win situation.” The workshops on the health board site were dilapidated and the access road a disgrace and a health hazard, she said, so the new facilities would be a tremendous benefit.

“I do not see any conflict of interest in providing facilities for the mentally and physically handicapped in my area.”

Judge Keys had asked Mr Moran if it had not dawned on him that the public could perceive that he was trying to buy Ms Devitt.

Ms Devitt described the suggestion as outrageous. “The only point in buying a person is if they can actually deliver. I wasn’t in a position to deliver, on the council or the health board.”

Ms Devitt has qualifications as a teacher and a solicitor, but said her dealings with Mr Moran were as a consultant. She believed he would have been aware of her knowledge of the intricate workings of the health board. She didn’t think €20,000 was a large amount for the work done, which took over a year.

However, she didn’t have any documents from her work as her computer was stolen in 2003.

She had no involvement in the planning permission lodged following her mediation and she did not influence the decision of the county council, she said

John White has asked for an apology, but why did he deny the women’s story for 9 years? He got the nail on the head that the culture in the Gardai is to ‘deny allegations where possible’.

Tribunal counsel Paul McDermott SC asked Det Sgt White if he would have continued to deny the allegations, as he had for nine years, if Det Garda Dooley had not made his new statement.

Det Sgt White said he had not thought about this module as he had been involved in so many others, but he would not have committed perjury.

“To be honest, Mr Chairman, I was hoping they [ Ms Brolly and Ms McConnell] wouldn’t come in,” he said. Mr McDermott said there was not a scintilla of evidence to suggest that Det Sgt White was going to tell the truth before last Saturday.

While giving evidence yesterday, Det Sgt White said: “I want to apologise to the two ladies, Mrs Róisín McConnell and Mrs Katrina Brolly, over the pain and hurt or trauma that they were caused by the interviews,” he said. He said he had meant to say it previously but his head was in a fog.

Det Sgt White said when the complaints about mistreatment were made officially, he met Det Garda Dooley and they discussed it and came to a decision that they would not admit to wrongdoing.

One reason for this was that some of the serious allegations made were not true, another was self-preservation and also that the investigation would not come to a hearing, he said. Another was that he didn’t want to go against “the culture that was there to deny allegations where possible”.

He said he had never threatened to take Ms Brolly’s children away. It was not a threat, it was a fact. If she was convicted, she would go to prison.

Asked what the apology was for, he replied: “The apology is about the photos being shown to Mrs Brolly and the abusive language used to her.”

If she was upset about what was said about her children, he apologised for that.

No suggestion of impropriety. It is in the paper for a reason though.

Almost half of the money raised in donations by Irish politicians last year was donated to the former junior minister, Ivor Callely, who resigned on Budget Day, according to figures released yesterday by the Standards in Public Office Commission.

The total disclosed by all politicians came to €147,526, with Mr Callely receiving €69,600. Fianna Fáil politicians accounted for €136,962 of the total, with Fine Gael declaring €5,824, Labour €3,740 and one Independent TD getting €1,000.

The amount raised by Mr Callely in a non-election year is more than four times the amount he will be able to spend in the next general election. The spending limit for candidates in his three-seat constituency of Dublin North Central is €25,394.

Almost half of that allocation will be taken up by the Fianna Fáil national campaign, so Mr Callely will be allowed to spend only in the region of €15,000.

The former junior minister disclosed more than 40 donations in 2005 worth between €750 and €2,500, the bulk of them being individual donations made at a golf classic.

By law, individual donations valued at more than €634.87 in terms of money, property, goods or services have to be disclosed to the commission.

I would be too…

Leading businessman Joe Moran has told the tribunal he only reluctantly agreed to pay £25,000 in fees to Frank Dunlop to lobby for the rezoning of his land in north County Dublin.

Mr Moran said his brother, Colm, and a business partner, Michael Hughes, agreed the fees with Mr Dunlop at a meeting in 1992 and he was informed several days later.

“I said there was no way we should have agreed that.” However, his colleagues told him this was “the going rate”.

At that stage, they had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on “architects and advisers and everybody else” in trying to develop the lands at Lissenhall, near Swords.

He eventually agreed to pay half upfront and half when Mr Dunlop delivered. “If you want it done, you have to pay it.”

Asked about his contact with Mr Dunlop, Mr Moran replied: “Never met him, never spoke to him, never saw him.”

He denied an intervention by former minister Ray Burke was pivotal to a decision by him to apply for industrial zoning on the land. He had already decided to seek industrial zoning when Mr Burke, at a meeting in the Burlington Hotel in December 1989, advised him to follow this course.

What troubles me is that they know there is a potential conflict of interest, they just don’t seem to want to admit it.

A Fine Gael county councillor was paid €20,000 for her help in solving a road access problem for a landowner in north County Dublin, the tribunal has heard.

Cllr Anne Devitt received the fee in 2002 for negotiating access to the land across property owned by the Eastern Health Board. At the time, she was a member of the EHB, the tribunal heard.

Details of the payment to Ms Devitt emerged yesterday during evidence given by businessman Joe Moran, whose company Rayband Ltd owned the land at Lissenhall near Swords. In 1993, Ms Devitt signed a motion while on Dublin County Council to rezone Rayband’s land for industry.

Paul Cullen of the Irish Times continues:

Yesterday, the inquiry heard that Mr Moran sought to gain access to the road through the EHB land because his property was landlocked. The company paid Ms Devitt the money in June 2002, after it agreed access through the EHB land in return for building ambulance and day-patient facilities.

Mr Moran said Ms Devitt had provided professional advice and legal services. She had portrayed herself as someone who could solve the problem. She had a reputation for solving problems.

Judge Gerald Keys said Ms Devitt was a politician and there was a potential conflict of interest.

Mr Moran replied that Ms Devitt didn’t do anything wrong.

Judge Keys: “Did it not cross your mind there was something questionable about being prepared to pay a substantial sum of money to a politician who was a member of the council, who would be close to the planning department, who was already instrumental in voting on zoning motions and also a member of the health board, which could come to your assistance?” Mr Moran: “No.”

Judge Keys: “Did it not dawn on you there could be a serious conflict of interest and that the public perception could be that what you were trying to do was to buy her?” Mr Moran: “Absolutely not.” Everything was above board and there were no under the counter payments.

He agreed that Ms Devitt, who is due to give evidence to the inquiry tomorrow, never provided him with written advice.

After all the controversy, Dublin Waterworld are being forced out of the National Aquatic Centre.

Dublin Waterworld Ltd must hand over possession of the €62 million National Aquatic Centre on April 28th next to the State company which owns it, the High Court has directed.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan yesterday deferred to April 25th his decision on any application by DWL for a stay on the possession order. He also adjourned to the same date the issue of liability for the costs of the legal proceedings brought against DWL, which are expected to be more than €2 million.

Costs were sought by Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd, the State company which owns the centre, against DWL, a shelf company with no assets and registered offices at Ballyvard, Tralee. DWL contends it is entitled to costs of various aspects of the proceedings.

Following an application yesterday by Denis McDonald SC, for CSID, DWL undertook to continue operating the centre to April 28th. It also undertook not to remove any equipment from the centre and to retain membership and other relevant records.

Joan Gallager is the only Garda left who has stuck to her original story in relation to the questioning of Katrina Brolly.

Garda Joan Gallagher denied there was mistreatment of Katrina Brolly during an interview at Letterkenny Garda station in 1996 in connection with the death of cattle-dealer Richie Barron.

She denied she pulled Ms Brolly’s hair, that there was abusive language by gardaí or that post-mortem photographs of Mr Barron had been shown. These allegations were made by Ms Brolly and by Det Garda John Dooley in a dramatic change to his earlier statement denying all claims.

Det Garda Dooley is on sick leave and is recovering from a severe bout of depression.

Det Sgt John White also issued a statement last week changing his evidence and admitting his part in mistreating the suspects. He could not remember a hair-pulling incident, but had no reason to doubt Det Garda Dooley. He could not identify at which interview the photos were shown.

Garda Gallagher said she was in at the second of three interviews with Ms Brolly. She said the events alleged did not take place. Det Garda Dooley was a friend of hers. She had known him for 13 years and he was an upright and honest man.

“I believe John Dooley believes what he is saying and doesn’t believe he is telling lies, but it didn’t happen. I believe John Dooley believes 100 per cent what he’s saying, it’s not out of malice or out to get anybody,” she said.

Tribunal counsel Anthony Barr SC asked about Det Garda Dooley’s statement that he held up postmortem photographs to Ms Brolly. Garda Gallagher said it did not happen.

Mr Barr asked why three people - Ms Brolly, Det Garda Dooley and Det Sgt White - all said it happened. Garda Gallagher replied: “I have no idea.”

She agreed there was probably bad language as it happened every day. Another claim that lights were switched on and off were also denied by Garda Gallagher. She also did not recall any remarks about Ms Brolly being told her children would be taken away from her.

“What I said was the truth,” she said. “While I was there, there was no mistreatment.”

The tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Frederick Morris, asked: “Why do you think Det Garda Dooley is imagining all this?” Garda Gallagher replied that she did not know.

She was not suggesting that his recent illness had anything to do with it, but maybe it did.

The chairman asked if she had any theory of her own.

“My honest feeling is it happened at another interview as I know it didn’t happen in the one I was in,” she said.